Thread: France 4/6 May
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Old 03-05-2007, 22:06
rcgills rcgills jest offline
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Re: France 4/6 May

Not much really stands out for me tomorrow. Was interested in Guingamp - in fact I actually went as far as backing them - but having now read team news I've got cold feet, and have laid them off again. 4 of their full-backs are injured (Le Lan, Koscielny, Leuguen and Truchet), so a midfielder, Pinto-Borges (just 3 starts this season) will be filling in at right-back, and Jean-François (defender, 11 played this season) will be at left-back. Looks like Meslin is still missing for them too up front, and I've just got a sneaking feeling they're going to make things complicated for themselves again.

Two games I'm most interested in at first glance are Le Havre to beat Dijon and Chateauroux not to lose to Caen. Le Havre have only failed to win 6 of their 17 home games this season - 5 of those were against teams in the top 6, with the other one being against Brest. They've won 7 of their last 8 homes, and are 6 points off the promotion places with 4 games to go, so absolutely have to win here (although of course the fact they have to doesn't mean they will).

Their squad is as follows:
Blondel- Mandanda - Baca - Ducrocq - Soumaré - Hénin - Milambo-Mutamba - Ait Ben idir - Digard - Devaux - Kharbouchi - Martot - Alla Larant - Traoré - Lesage

Doesn't actually specify who's missing for them though, and I'll want to know before I'm prepared to consider backing them at around 1.65.

As for Chateauroux, it's more of a bet against Caen really. They're still in 2nd, but showing signs of feeling the pressure at the top - 5 games without a win now, and from their last 12 games, they've only won 3, against the teams in 15th, 18th and 20th. They tend to draw a lot of games away from home too, 5-7-4 for the season, and they've failed to win on their last 3 visits to Chateauroux. Chateauroux need an absolute miracle to get promoted, but strictly speaking they still have a tiny mathematical chance of getting there - they're 11 points behind Caen and Strasbourg (2nd and 3rd) with 4 to play. Having said that, Caen's run-in isn't too bad (Reims at home, Istres and Libourne away), and as they've got a 4pt cushion over 4th place at the moment, I don't think they'd consider a draw tomorrow a disaster.

Will wait until tomorrow in any case, but at the moment, it's Le Havre plus either Chateauroux or a lay of Caen on my shortlist.
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